


Ineffable Bureaucracy

by DragonsPhoenix



Category: Good Omens (TV)
Genre: Other
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-01-26
Updated: 2020-09-12
Packaged: 2021-02-27 05:00:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 584
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22411402
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DragonsPhoenix/pseuds/DragonsPhoenix
Summary: A set of scenes starting from The Fall. Gabriel has feelings for Beelzebub. They aren't necessarily reciprocated.
Relationships: Beelzebub/Gabriel (Good Omens)
Comments: 4
Kudos: 19





	1. Beelzebub

**Author's Note:**

> Inspired by [this post](https://flowery-king.tumblr.com/post/185796660035/hey-so-im-not-sure-why-it-didnt-post-the-first).

Gabriel’s gaze fell ever downward, descending from Heaven to trail the plummeting angel. He despaired as pure feathers, corrupted by sin, blackened to pitch. All the fallen screamed but Gabriel heard only the one voice just as he’d always seen only the one angel, that solemn and reserved figure who’d drawn his attention as no other. 

Metatron had foretold the rebellion and God’s punishment, exile into a realm of torment, but God’s voice hadn’t said that the traitors’ names would be ripped away, hadn’t shared that the dulcet syllables of the angel’s name would be replaced by one noxious word.


	2. Flashback: Alpha Centauri

Gabriel’s wings gleamed pale blue in the starlight. He’d meant to join the host but had stopped mid-flight. He’d never encountered angels gathering outside of Heaven, but that wasn’t why he’d hesitated. 

He’d never spoken to the angel. His own higher rank had kept them apart, but that didn’t mean he couldn’t reach out. There was no reason to feel uncertain. The angel should feel – no, would feel – honored. But before Gabriel could approach, Lucifer flew forward. Flustered by the company the angel was keeping, Gabriel bowed low before God’s second-in-command. 

“Archangel, can we help you?” As all eyes turned on him, Gabriel felt vaguely unwelcome. 

“Uh, just passing through. Saw you all gathered here.”

Lucifer’s gesture, a grand sweeping of feathers, highlighted a pair of stars. “We’re here to view Crawley’s great work. Beautiful, is it not?” 

“Um, sure. Good use of color.” 

The laughter hit Gabriel like a blow. When harmonizing in the celestial choir, he’d always felt larger than himself, as if he could stretch out to encompass all of God’s creation. Why then did this sniggering seem – he could barely even think it – deliberately harmful? He felt only slightly better when the angel didn’t join in.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Crawley wasn’t his angelic name but the original names of the Fallen have been forgotten, Gabriel’s memory fills in the new demonic name. And that means Lucifer's name should have changed as well since I'm counting that as Satan's angelic name (or at least that's how I think of canon); so this is sort of AU in that sense.


	3. Inappropriate Feelings

As he stared down from the walls of Heaven, Gabriel almost felt as if he were plummeting alongside the angel, but a discrete cough behind him said otherwise. “Go away Michael.” 

“The angels need direction.” 

Gabriel reached a hand down as if trying draw the angel up by force of will. “There must be some way to bring them back.” 

The air thundered with Michael’s disapproval. 

Gabriel glanced away from the falling angel. “Not all,” he added. “Just those misled by bad, um, leadership.”

“God banished them. She ripped away their names. You can’t let any inappropriate feelings you may have had for one angel …”

Inappropriate? His gaze searched the mass of falling figures, but the angel had vanished. He could have stayed there, forever searching for one fallen angel, but Michael wasn’t done. “You should rally the Host. Glorious defeat of our eternal enemy. You know, the sort of thing you’re good at.”

He turned from the Fallen and wondered how Heaven had lost its luster.


	4. Lucifer

There had never been a beginning. Heaven was eternal. The angelic host had always gathered as one to sing their praises in everlasting harmonies. Now cacophony reigned. Small groups twittered together over the loss of once-beloved companions who’d been cast down into a new realm, a dark abyss God had named Hell. Even the brightness of their memories was gone. What could have been fond reminiscences of angels were disrupted by the dissonance of their new names, a harsh and guttural clatter of syllables incompatible with their harmonious past: Hastur, Ligur, Beelzebub. Nothing of their old companions remained. 

“That’s not entirely true.” The words, spoken by one minor Principality, did not go unheard. “One name is unchanged.”


End file.
